Portable hand-held hair dryers with heated air outputs have been used extensively by professional barbers and beauticians as well as by individuals in the home for many years. Such dryers typically have a cylindrical barrel portion from which the hot air exits axially out of one end. The air outlet opening is relatively small and thus provides a flow of high velocity concentrated air. With the high velocity air flow, the temperatures used in such blower/dryers can be relatively high without creating a risk of internal heat build-up by the heating elements and as such, the drying power of these devices is quite high. The most common configuration of this type is the gun-type unit in which a handle portion extends downwardly at a right angle from a cylindrical barrel portion. A motor and a centrifugal fan are positioned at the junction of the handle and body portion. Electrical heating elements are provided between the fan and the frontally located air outlet.
If brushing or combing is desired for styling of the hair, however, both hands must be used with the dryer being held in one hand and a comb or brush in the other. This presents a generally inconvenient and cumbersome task for an individual attempting to style his or her own hair. Where a second person, such as a professional hair stylist, is performing the simultaneous drying and styling function using two hands, the task may be less inconvenient, but the high velocity, high temperature air flow out of the barrel outlet opening may undesirably blow or scatter the hair and hinder styling of the hair. Also, such hair dryers may dry the hair too quickly or may even overdry the hair while it is being styled to such an extent that it may be damaged by the removal of necessary oils or by protein degradation within the matrix of the hair shafts themselves.
In response to these disadvantages, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,540 to Bastian, there have been developed in the prior art various forms of diffusers for attenuating the hot air blast from hair dryers. Some of these devices comprise baffling structures that are removably secured to the output end of the hair dryer tube. Such devices are inconvenient to store and install, and removal of the device after use may be hazardous, due to the possibility of sustaining burns from the heated surfaces. Other arrangements include umbrella-like arrangements for partially blocking air flow, a system that is mechanically complicated and prone to mechanical failure. Likewise, some diffusers have employed rotating vanes to partially constrict the output orifice, but the resulting effect is to increase the velocity of the air stream. The prior art indicates a lack of a reliable device for selectively diffusing the air blast of a hair dryer.
Yet another approach to solving the problems associated with conventional, hand-held hair dryers has been the so-called styler/dryer appliance. Such appliances typically have an elongated body with a head portion in which the hot air flow exits laterally therefrom. The styling function may be facilitated by the presence of various styling attachments, such as one or more brushes or combs and may be manipulated in the same fashion as is a common brush with one's hair being dried and styled as the user merely brushes or combs his or her hair. A typical construction of a styler/dryer incorporates a tangential fan within the head portion thereof with the heating elements being positioned between the fan and the lateral air outlet. The air outlet contained in styler/dryers is of a larger area than that of the typical blower/dryer and consequently the air exits through this outlet at a lower velocity. This lower velocity and less concentrated air flow will not tend to adversely blow or scatter the user's hair as much as the high velocity air in the blower/dryer, thereby facilitating the styling operation. Such styler/dryer appliances, however, typically lack the high velocity, high temperature air flow of conventional dryers preferred to initially dry the hair to prepare it for styling in a second step where the drying of the hair may be simultaneously completed. In view of these considerations, it would be advantageous to have a single, portable hand-held product that would provide the functions and advantages of both a blower/dryer appliance as well as a styler/dryer appliance.
Prior efforts to provide the combined functions of a blower/dryer and a styler/dryer appliance in one hand-held unit have been suggested. More particularly, the idea of a hair blower having means for delivering the air outwardly through the end of the barrel or blocking the end of the barrel and causing the air to flow out the side of the barrel are, in general known.
For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,661,910 and 5,598,640, both issued to Schepisi, disclose a hand-held blow dryer in which the air may be directed axially through the end of a barrel, or the end may be closed by deflectors, causing the air to be directed radially out of the barrel through holes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,198,556; 4,198,557; and 4,198,558, all assigned to Sunbeam Corporation, disclose a hair blower which may be used in a gun configuration with air flowing out through the end, or may be used with the handle in line with the barrel so that air is blocked from going out the end and goes out the side for use as a styler/dryer.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,148,512 and 5,157,757 both disclose other arrangements for a hair dryer in which air flow may pass through the end or through the sides of the barrel.
These prior efforts to provide a multifunctional unit, however, may be in general characterized by having many moving parts to either direct the air out of the barrel end or alternatively out of the sides of the barrel. Such moving parts add complexity and cost to the construction of the units which are typically mass marketed and price sensitive. Additionally, such moving parts tend to break, especially where they are used in association with the materials typically used in the construction of mass marketed hair dryers.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,286, issued Dec. 1, 1998 (incorporated by reference), I describe a hair drying appliance which can be used as a gun-type blower/dryer and as an elongated styler-dryer without the necessity of employing complicated additional moving parts or attachments. The blow dryer arrangement described in my prior U.S. patent adds functionality to the appliance by allowing simultaneous airflow from the barrel surface as well as from the barrel end allowing its use for horizontal lifting/drying/styling as well as a hot roller and diffuse. The appliance of my earlier patent is provided with at least two chambers which service to control the relative velocity and uniformity of hot air exiting through holes in the periphery of the barrel on the one hand and at the barrel end opening on the other hand.